Category Archives: Philanthropy

I hope you’re getting ready for a Bakesale for Japan coming tomorrow to a town near you. Please show your support if you can! Hat tip to Brad Coy for pushing the cause.

This is a great example of a well done promotional video by a charity, Free The Children in this case, that provides insight into the organization and what they are working on. A little more context coming soon

I just came across the Words of Resistance blog as a result of reading this post on Global Voice Online. The blog was started by Chantal Flores, who teaches at a middle school in Zapotitlán Palmas, a town in Oaxaca, Mexico. From their about page: This blog is a space for stories written by students from Zapotitlán’s middle school (grade 7-9) who are transforming their reality word by word. It seems like a very cool project, and one I think could easily be expanding to other geographic areas and being used to bring more awareness to the issues students face all over the globe on a daily basis.

I just read (well, skimmed though some parts) two books – Out of Poverty and Made to Stick. I thought I’d combine some of the concepts of the two books and repeat a story from Out of Poverty. Here is the story of a pavement-dwelling family that lives underneath the balcony of Paul Polak’s colleague Zenia Tata at the IDE. Her family has known them 25 years (the book was published in 2008): The mother and father in this sidewalk family are both lame, crippled by polio, and they live with their healthy five-year-old son on a spot originally settled by the husband’s parents. The husband makes a living darting in and out of the … Continue reading →

I met an ambitious youth named Michael Richard while in Tanzania a couple weeks ago who aspires to study computing programming in the United States. He has a friend in San Diego who has said he’ll help him with tuition and room & board, but Michael looking to take the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) test to improve his chances of getting a visa to study in the United States. The cost of the test is $180. If you’d like to help fund the $180, please reach out to me and I’ll put you in touch with Michael.

For $765, a family living in the Pipeline IDP camp in Kenya can go from THIS (make-shift shack constructed with tarps and whatever other water resistant materials can be found that leaks and/or collapses during rain showers) To THIS (a framed structure with a tin roof and siding that can withstand the rain) If you want to fund construction of one of these homes for $765, you can head over the the Global Volunteer Network and learn more about Pipeline IDP. Once the materials are purchased, the home can be constructed in just two days. Here is a video with more about the Pipeline IDP: It’s truly amazing that a mere $765 can make such … Continue reading →